Give Pelle more respect, says Zabaleta

MANCHESTER City defender Pablo Zabaleta claims manager Manuel Pellegrini is not getting the respect he deserves.

Speculation over the Chilean’s future has been considerable in recent weeks as City have faltered in the premier league title race. Pellegrini has borne the brunt of the criticism for City’s failure to sustain a serious challenge to Chelsea..

Zabaleta says that’s unfair on the manager, who oversaw two trophy successes last year.

The Argentinian right–back said: “The manager deserves more respect from everyone. He came here last season, he won the league and the Capital One Cup. We cannot blame just the manager for this. Individual players have also not been great in the whole season.

“Everyone is responsible – when you don’t win titles it can be a little bit frustrating for everyone.”

A number of other managers have been linked with Pellegrini’s position, but the club is not understood to be considering a change at present.

Zabaleta said: “Now is not the time to be thinking about what went wrong this season, it’s just the time to finish as good as we can. Then we’ll see what happens.”